Our Man in San Fran …part 1

Recently promoted to Head of Innovation our former Senior Developer, Hadrien Jouet, is travelling the globe to realise his dreams and help put innovation at the forefront of everything we do as a digital agency. His travels begin at the heart of all things digital in San Francisco, USA, where he currently resides. From there Hadrien will venture to the technological hub of Busan, South Korea, and finally on to bustling Vancouver, Canada.

Over the next couple of ‘innovation’ blog articles we aim to give you a taste of what Hadrien is up to overseas, how his travels are influencing his work and what benefits we hope this innovative approach to working will provide to the agency as a whole.

So, over to Hadrien, giving you an introduction to his new life in San Fran:“It's already been two months since I started working remotely, and probably because this is such an enriching experience, time is absolutely flying by. The next leg of my journey will start in less than a month, yet there's still so much to do in San Francisco.

“By and large, San Francisco is a very pleasant city - the weather is always stunning; the food is more than often good; and there's a great mix of people from all sorts of different backgrounds. So it may seem strange to some people that it is also, by any standard, the "holy place" of the geek. Being a geek in San Francisco is something to be proud of, as well as something to take advantage of.

“As a geek here you yield a kind of power I've never quite seen anywhere else before. San Francisco, and Northern California in general, have based their modern economy around technology, so naturally it is the techies who are sought after. Where California really stands apart though, is that companies here have realised that if you look after your geeks properly, they'll produce incredible results in return. In my opinion, the average geek isn't particularly good at looking after him/herself - give them an exciting piece of work and they'll forget to do the most basic things, even eating or sleeping. And companies here know that.

“Welcome to the realm of hackathons and meetups! Several times a week, any person can attend meetups relating to their own subjects of interest. The whole point being that you get to share experiences with like-minded people, and for a few entrepreneurs and investors, this is also a way to hand-pick new talent. Oh and not to mention there's free food and drinks, as well as a host of other freebies, including invitations to other events and private beta access to systems that may very well become the ‘next big thing’.

“Then you have hackathons. On top of all the things you'd expect in a meetup, there's a shared burning desire to build something innovative in a limited amount of time. And the results are often not only impressive, but really highlight what amazing things a handful of people can build given the right conditions.”